Wi-Fi as connection technology is becoming more and more important; many new gadgets are equipped with Wi-Fi chip-set to enable connection and usages of different equipment together. As an example of equipment that has Wi-Fi are projectors, cameras, videos and printers.
Apple's implementation of zero configurations is using Bonjour to service discovery, address assignment and host resolutions. Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local area network by using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records and Ethernet as transport, using IP with link-local address in the local domain. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a similar solution that permits network devices, such as PC, printers and Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access point discover each other's for data shearing.
The term “wireless communication device” will be used throughout this description to denote any device which is capable of wireless communications. The term wireless communication device may thus include any device, which may be used by a user for wireless communications. Accordingly, the term wireless communication device may alternatively be referred to as a mobile terminal, a terminal, a user terminal (UT), a user equipment (UE), a wireless terminal, a wireless communication device, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), a mobile phone, a cell phone, a table computer, a smart phone, etc. Yet further, the term wireless communication device includes MTC (Machine Type Communication) devices, which do not necessarily involve human interaction. MTC devices are sometimes referred to as Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices.
In office buildings so called small cells or distributed antenna systems (DAS) are often arranged to provide increased access to UEs in cellular communication networks. For instance, the small cells may be implemented as pico or femto cells. Furthermore, internal data communication in office buildings are typically offered to employees and facilities, e.g. conference rooms, by LANs (Local Area Networks). It is common to provide LAN functionality wirelessly by WLANs (Wireless LANs).
UEs and other apparatuses as personal computers, printers, projectors, etc., are allowed to communicate data within the LANs which they are registered in. When connecting to a WLAN, users of UEs and other apparatuses enters a password before being authenticated by an AP (Access Point) of the WLAN.
WLANs are often referred to as Wi-Fi networks. Wi-Fi is a trademark name, and was stated to be a play on the audio term Hi-Fi (High-Fidelity). The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any WLAN products that are based on the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 standards. However, since most modern WLANs are based on these standards, the term “Wi-Fi” is used in general English as a synonym for “WLAN”.
There are no solutions for 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) device belonging 3GPP network to co-operate and use services at Local Area Networks at IP (Internet Protocol) level. Since the IP-address is obtained from the HSS (Home Subscriber Server) or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server belonging to an operator, received at the core network and using the GTP-U tunnels, which end-point is terminated at PDN-GW, this makes 3GPP devices live in separate networks, at IP-address level. No connection for the network that is local at the moment for the user. The 3GPP solution using LIPA (Local IP Access) or SIPTO (Selected Internet IP Traffic Offload) is to use a special local PDN-GW (Packet Data Network GateWay) with a separate APN for the local traffic. The local APN (Access Point Name) is owned and controlled by the mobile operator and controls what is accessible locally. At the same time the local PDN-GW requires several mobile core network interfaces, and this makes the solution complex. Providers of WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks) often offer access to their WLANs to get access to the Internet. Access may be offered both with and without entering a password.
However, unregistered end users are not allowed to use local resources of the WLANs. For instance, a guest who visits an office will be able to connect to the Internet via a WLAN, such as a Wi-Fi network at the office, but will not be able to use WLAN connected apparatuses, such as projectors, printers, etc.
There is a need to devise a flexible and convenient method to enable end users to get access to installed local service devices in LANs.